What can MLA Commons do for my forum?

We encourage the executive committees of MLA forums to engage with their forum’s members on the Commons. Each forum has its own group, with the following features:

1. A discussion area, which functions like a LISTSERV but with additional archival capacities. Members can choose to receive messages as they are posted or as a daily or weekly e-mail digest.
2. An area for collaboratively authoring documents, such as calls for papers.
3. The opportunity to share items deposited with CORE, the MLA repository, directly with their most likely readers: members of a given forum.
4. A private file-storage area for items that members wish to restrict to the forum, such as syllabi and works in progress.
5. The option to create a publicly accessible group Web site that showcases the forum’s area of focus as well as its convention sessions and demonstrates the field’s public appeal. Members who have created these sites have benefited from increased interest in their work and a greater sense of connectedness to their colleagues.

Most MLA forums comprise 100 to 2,000 members, and these discussion spaces have the potential to be rich sources of intellectual and pedagogical exchange. We ask you, as executive committee members, to lead the way! Should you have any questions about encouraging use of this community space, please contact Nicky Agate, managing editor of the Commons.

When you join a group, you can post content on the Commons in a variety of ways: by contributing to the forum, creating a new doc, or uploading a file. If you want to upload a file, go to Files in the left menu of your group. Under Files List, you will see materials that have been shared by other colleagues. Once you click Upload a New Document, you can upload your file, give your document a display name, and offer a description. Click Save when you’re finished.

Please note that file size is limited to 2 MB, so you may want to use a compression tool (such as Small PDF) if your file exceeds the limit.

Group roles identify what managerial functions group members can perform within the group. In addition to regular members, there are group administrators and group moderators. Group administrators can change group settings (e.g., turn the group blog on or off, turn group forums on or off, change group status from public to private); post announcements; change group avatar; manage group members (e.g., ban members, promote or demote members); and delete the group. Group moderators can edit the Group Details, including the name of the group and group description; edit, close, and delete forum topics and posts; edit or delete group documents; and post announcements.

These are covered in more detail here.

When you create a group, you will be asked to set member roles. These determine the status of your group members and their ability to post and comment on the group blog.

Administrators have access to all the administration features; editors can publish posts, manage posts, and manage others’ posts; authors can publish and manage their own posts; contributors can write and manage, but not publish, their posts; subscribers can read comments, make comments, and receive newsletters.

You must have at least one administrator, but the remaining roles are not required, and there is no limit on the number of people who can occupy each role.

These are covered in more detail here.